A Devine Messenger of the HeartCloud: The Night of Kitty

By: Victor Anderson

On Wednesday, I lived to see my second encounter with Kitty (Pryde). The first time was May 3 when she opened for Danny Brown in Greensboro and my only real contact was handing her a mystery flavored Airhead. This time it was different; I had a VIP meet-and-greet pass.

Wednesday, the 24th, was an overall spectacular and magical day. My friend, Tyree, ended up getting a very Based tattoo and I got to kick it with my friend, Trish. I planned on going to the show with those idiots but when we got to the door we found out that the show was apparently sold out. I did a little detective work and by the luck of the draw, my two buddies ended up on the guest list. As they left to go withdraw cash from an ATM, I tried not to psyche myself out because I knew that I was meeting Kitty soon. Five other meet-n-greeters showed up and we were escorted into the venue during Anamanaguchi’s sound check. We followed an important looking man while maintaining a single file line to a bench behind the bar. We were seated and told to wait for Kitty which made me feel like I was in elementary school again.

I sat next to a dame who held a bland, slim box and I asked her what she had brought for Kitty. Her present contained some DVDs showcasing the film festival she worked for. Meanwhile, my only present was a pocket full of ring pops as I was trying to maintain the tradition of candy giving.

So, we sat and waited as overbearing tunes blared from the stage, breaking our silence and to our surprise, Kitty emerged from nowhere to join us.

“Do you guys wanna go somewhere more quiet?” She asked even though I could barely hear her. We nodded and followed her toward solitude.

She was the head of the line and I was directly behind her (that’s just how it played out). We trailed down a stairwell (the venue was above a restaurant) and I decided then was the right time for my gift, so I handed it over. She thanked me and we continued to walk down the steps to exit the venue to grace the sidewalks of downtown Raleigh. Kids stood around, waiting in line behind the imaginary force field that is the velvet rope and peered in assumed jealousy as Kitty and us waltzed down to the outdoor seating of a nearby restaurant.

We sat and introduced ourselves and I geeked out internally as she recognized me from the internet. She indulged us in conversation as we did her, while she and I puffed on our smokes. I had a little bit of liquid courage in me and all my nerves must have been washed down with my Olde English because I was chatting it up with Kitty like she was anybody else. We all got our turn to ask her whatever we wanted but I felt as if I was one of the main spokespeople of the group. I mean, I’ve been fanning over her for the past year, so I had a bit to talk about in concerns of what she’s been doing since her mall job at Claire’s.

Mid-convo, she suddenly freed her hair from a ponytail and allowed her flawless red locks to flow like the river of blood from The Shining, and I swear I almost lost it. I could have sworn that it happened in slow motion.

Eventually, the hostess from the restaurant asked us to leave and we migrated to the stairwell of the venue for more hangout time. We asked her about all kinds of shit, like her memoirs involving the behind the scenes of rap life, to cats, to Yeezus trolling, to Das Racist, to Big Baby Gandhi, to Lakutis’ mother popping hella champagne, to her current thoughts on her life as a rapper. And for future reference, never wear a fedora if you’re trying to get on her good side. Trust me.

According to twitter (or was it tumblr) Kitty claims to not detect awkwardness when talking to people and that was very evident, but there was nothing to be awkward about. She really knew how to keep a conversation going and boy was she genuinely nice; not to mention how stunningly beautiful she was in person. Anyways, during the entire duration of the meet-n-greet I remained calm on the outside but was uber jittery with joy and excitement within (I think I played it off well).

Unfortunately, great things in life have to come to an end due to soundchecks and that’s what happened. But not before we all got our own personal selfie with Kitty and according to her policy, she must take the photo herself (it didn’t hit me until later that she actually held my cellphone, which was crazy in itself to me). She went on to sign whatever we gave her to sign.

Only a few grains of sand were left in the hourglass and I couldn’t stop thinking of how surreal the past hour had been. My heart was uncontrollably but steadily beating and I realized that this is what being in the heartcloud must feel like. I ended up getting a farewell high-five from Kitty after she signed my little black rhyme book. I glanced down to read what she wrote. She left me with a stunned and goofy smile on my face as she spoke to whoever was around who was not me.

This was the 10th day or so that Kitty was on tour with Anamanaguchi, the 8bit wonderland band who literally sent a pizza pie to space. The attendees stood around waiting for Kitty to appear on stage and soon enough she did. All the Kittyteers crowded the front of the stage on the brink of fainting from being within arm’s length of the princess of Bubble Rap (as I like call it). She commanded the stage like a goddess, leaving boys (including myself) in awe as she performed bass heavy R&B covers of her songs and treating us to exclusive listening’s to new tracks. Whether she was bouncing around to hype shit or serenading us with her love songs, she innocently demanded the attention of the audience and I could tell that she was having a good time. This was not the shy and embarrassed Kitty from a year ago. She was more comfortable and well-adjusted to her job as performer and she did it well.

She ended her set with “Orion’s Belt” featuring Riff Raff (a song my tan friend, Tyree was waiting for all night) and the kids who really fucked with it went wild (again, myself included). Tyree slapped people in the face with his dreads as he got buck for the song; belting the lyrics right back at Kitty. We all rapped it together and it was a very posivibe fueled moment if you ask me. She even handed the mic to us during Riff Raff’s verse, which was an honor (even though I flubbed up on the lyrics).

We cheered and we clapped and Kitty cleared the stage for Anamanaguchi but she didn’t disappear to the green room or her van, she stuck around for the rest of the night and kicked it at the venue. You could find her conversing with fans, taking pictures, wildin’ out to Anamanaguchi’s set or chilling by the merch table. I found it quite strange how I gradually became comfortable with her presence in such a short amount of time. It was like, “yep, there’s Kitty.”

She ended up passing me one final time but I was too busy to notice because I was pan handling a drunkard for a dollar so that my friend could buy another sticker that he ruined during the performance of Anamanaguchi.